Last week, LEN postponed the water polo competitions under its jurisdiction that was planned to be held until April 11th, due to the coronavirus outbreak .
Today, the LEN Bureau decided to put on hold, postpone and cancel all LEN events scheduled to take place before the end of June or beginning of July.
As for water polo, this decision affects LEN competitions for clubs and the LEN European Masters Championships.
The LEN Bureau informed the national federations that all Water Polo Cups Competitions have being put on hold.
FINA decided to postpone the Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournament in Rotterdam to May 31st – June 7th. This is one more reason that forces LEN to reschedule its competitions. By LEN’s calendar, the LEN Champions League Final Eight was supposed to be played in Recco early in June (4th – 6th).
“LEN will assess whether the continental clubs’ competitions can still happen in the planned timeline, also in a view of what will be decided by the IOC relatively to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and consequently by FINA relatively to the Olympic Qualification Tournaments, or whether a different decision will have to be made. Consequently, and once more clarity is achieved with respect to the FINA Calendar, the Champions League Final 8, planned for 4-6 June in Recco (ITA) is being put on hold. LEN will assess in due time if and how, where and when the competition will be held. All involved WP clubs and organizers will be duly informed in due time”, LEN President Paolo Barelli wrote in a letter addressed to all national federations.
The European Water Polo Masters Championships was planned to be held in Budapest late in May (24 – 29), after the 2020 European Aquatics Championships (in all sports except water polo). But, today, LEN postponed the Aquatic Championships (planned for May 11th – 24th). The tentative new dates for the Championships are 17th – 30th August. The European Masters Championships in all aquatic sports are planned to be held alongside the main Championships, the dates for those events are also to be confirmed later.
All LEN Junior Championships scheduled to happen between the end of June and early July are also postponed The first LEN junior water polo competition this summer is Women’s U19 Championships (Rome, August 23rd – 30th). The qualifications for the U19 European championships, that were scheduled for the first weekend of April are also postponed until further notice.
